Hello, Madam Chair. I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk to you about the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs' position.
My name is Daniel Albert. I am the Assistant Director of the Gatineau Fire Services and a member of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs.
In 2009, I was among those who had to manage the pandemic at the local level. I also tried to organize and structure the whole process. Let me tell you that it was not an easy task. It was chaos on a number of levels. Contradictory information was provided at various points from different people and organizations.
The reason that I mention this is that clear communication regarding the fact that our firefighters are front-line health care workers is very important for fire services, the directors and the firefighters, who work on a full-time, part-time and volunteer basis. Let us not forget that there are approximately 3,500 fire services in Canada, a large number of which include part-time and volunteer firefighters.
When your ambulance attendants are overwhelmed with work, who are you going to call? Clearly, you will call the firefighters, both professional full-time firefighters who work in the large municipalities and firefighters who work part-time.
In Gatineau's neighbouring communities, volunteer firefighters are the first responders. They help ambulance attendants and paramedics on a daily basis. It is clear for we members of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs that the Public Health Agency of Canada must ensure that all its provincial and territorial counterparts know that fire services staff must be given priority access to vaccinations. It is also important that they understand why. My colleagues, Scott Marks and Kevin White, spoke at length on this subject. I will therefore not reiterate the reasons it is important that firefighters be given priority access to vaccinations.
All municipal public health authorities must be aware that fire services staff need to be treated as a priority and they must understand why. It is for the same reasons mentioned by Mr. Marks and Mr. White, in both pandemic and other interventions. Other interventions will continue to be needed. There will still be fires and car accidents. Clearly, those things are not going to stop happening. When municipal, provincial and federal infrastructure crumbles, firefighters will be there to help. That is for certain. It is guaranteed.
In the larger communities that have their own fire, police and emergency services, specialized clinics should be set up that are separate from the clinics for the general public. Why specialized clinics? Sending firefighters, police officers and first responders to the same clinic as the general public creates disorder and imbalance. It does not send a good message because seniors will be there with able-bodied young men. People may get the impression that we are getting preferential treatment. Rest assured, we are not asking for preferential treatment. Firefighters do not want preferential treatment. They want to be there to help people, to help Canadians in communities big and small.
Since volunteer firefighters are very important in small communities, additional efforts must be made to ensure that volunteers are able to receive the vaccination quickly. Let us not forget that 78% of the 108,000 firefighters in Canada are volunteers.
Finally, I would like to add that every effort must be made to avoid preferential treatment, to avoid fraudulent vaccinations, which undermine the credibility of a large organization such as the Public Health Agency of Canada.
There is no doubt about it: we were lucky that the 2009 pandemic was not more serious. Canadians may not be so lucky the next time.
The message that our association wants to send to the Public Health Agency of Canada is that fire services know their role in a pandemic. We know that our role is potentially dangerous, but we are there to help. In co-operation with the Public Health Agency of Canada, the association can do a lot to protect Canadians.
If you have any questions, I can respond to them at the end.
Thank you.